Adaptation to minimize the joint impacts of climate change and the management of hydraulic infrastructures on fish and fish habitat

在气候变化的背景下，管理水库下游的放水以维持环境流量正变得更加复杂，需要更好的预测和决策工具。这项建议旨在获取新知识并开发/改进气候变化背景下水库管理的工具，以减轻潜在水温升高对鱼类的影响。该方法基于三个子组成部分：1)改进水文、水力和水温模型，并使之适应水库管理的背景。2)获得关于Nechako系统中三个重要鱼类的生理和温度要求的新关键知识，本研究就是在Nechako系统中进行的。3)利用气候变化情景预测水库放水管理中可能需要的潜在变化。对加拿大水温行业的好处包括将从第一次对加拿大西部一个重要的受管理分水岭的水温需求的多物种研究中获得的见解，改进的流动和水温管理的建模工具，以及培训具有跨学科经验的高素质人员。

In the context of climate change, the management of water releases downstream of reservoirs to maintainenvironmental flows is becoming more complex and better tools are required for forecasting anddecision-making. This proposal aims at acquiring new knowledge and developing/improving tools for reservoirmanagement in the context of climate change, in order to mitigate the impacts of potential increased watertemperature on fish. The approach is based on three sub-components: 1) Improve and adapt hydrological,hydraulic and water temperature models to the context of reservoir management. 2) Acquiring new keyknowledge on the physiology and temperature requirements of three important fish species that are present inthe Nechako system, where this study is taking place. 3) Use climate change scenarios to anticipate potentialchanges that may be required in the management of reservoir water releases. The benefits for the Canadianindustry include insights that will be gained from a first multi-species study of water temperature requirementsin an important managed watershed in Western Canada, improved modelling tools for flow and watertemperature management and training of highly qualified personnel with cross-disciplinary experience.